The arrival of winter along with the beginning of festivals at various traditional souqs in and around Doha have brought hordes of visitors to those destinations in the evenings. 
The launch of the Spring Festival at Doha’s Souq Waqif on Friday has proved to be a crowd-puller. Mainly families enjoyed the activities during the weekend. 
The festivities will continue until January 4.
Thanks to the active support extended by the local tourism officials, a considerably large number of entertainment activities are hosted at souqs. Troupes from across the region are performing on a daily basis.
Many eateries in the traditional souqs in Doha and Wakrah are reportedly doing good business, especially on the weekends when there is a big rise in the number of visitors. It is understood that a sizeable number of visitors are regulars and this has boosted the morale of the organisers as well as the operators of restaurants, especially those facing the beach in Al Wakrah. The visitors are also seen spending considerable time at the outlets at the traditional souq where many goods, equipment and accessories are sold. 
Besides those dealing in ethnic Arab and Qatari costumes, shops selling Qatari handicrafts, music instruments and traditional goods such as swords, apparels and dates are all attracting quite a number of visitors.
Though Doha’s Souq Waqif is already an extensively familiar location to the country’s revellers, Souq Al Wakrah has also become popular and started receiving people in good numbers these days. 
“Since the beginning of the Qatar National Day celebrations, there has been a spurt in the numbers of visitors,” said a restaurateur at Souq Al Wakrah.  
Growing road connectivity towards the southern side has also helped in boosting the visitors numbers, it is learnt.


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